Warning: Spoilers for Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #5!

In DC ComicsSuperman is a comic hero who will stop at nothing to save Earth from all threats it may face, and while he will always put his life on the line to defeat evil in any of its forms, The Man of Steel’s most recent sacrifice is one that has saved not just Earth, but the entire universe!

An ultimate sacrifice made in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #5, written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Dan Mora, this series focuses on tales set at a time when Batman and Superman were relatively new to the superhero game, as a young Supergirl and a still Robin Dick Grayson tag along to help them on their heroic mission. An opening story arc that sees DC Comics’ World’s Finest take on a great and ancient evil called the Devil Nezha, this overpowered entity is a threat to the entire universe and is only capable of being contained inside a special crypt that needs to be sealed from the inside; a fact that ensures at least one person won’t be coming back from this battle unharmed.

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Realizing this is the only way to defeat Nezha, everyone makes their case as to why they are to be the ones to sacrifice themselves and take this devil demon down once and for all — the various members of the present Doom Patrol team included. Failing to restrain Nezha in the Phantom Zone in a last-ditch effort to avoid leaving one of them behind, Superman ends up doing the one thing he’s always prepared to do when the game is on the line: he takes one for the team.

Superman flies into Phantom Zone to save universe

Attempting to snag the enchanted talisman Supergirl and a now time-displaced Robin acquired to help them lock Nezha away, Batman, Supergirl, and Superman race to grab the relic and save the others from a fate that would see them trapped with Nezha for eternity. But being faster than Batman and Supergirl, Superman snags the talisman first, tackles Nezha into the crypt, and seals the door for good, sacrificing himself and saving the universe as an iconic hero like The Man of Steel is wont to do, in the process.

Luckily, it’s soon revealed that Superman (and an unknowing Batman) had a plan to come back from certain doom all along (let’s just say the Phantom Zone can work as a middle-man for jumping back to the real world), but that doesn’t change the fact that at a moment’s notice, while up against any threat big or small, with the city, the world or the universe on the line, and with the odds firmly stacked against him, Superman will always sacrifice himself for the greater good no matter the cost. Having done so on more than one occasion over the years — as seen in the finale to All-Star Superman where he literally ends up residing inside the sun to sustain and fix it — Superman being the kind of hero who doesn’t blink in the face of adversity is a quality of his that's a constant across his portrayals in the main DC Universe.

Superman is a wholesome character who would sacrifice his life to save a cat stuck in a tree if he had to, so sentencing himself to death to stop a devilish threat is just par for the course for this iconic DC Comics superhero. Good thing Batman’s as clever as everyone gives him credit for because if he wasn’t, this ultimate sacrifice of Superman’s would have been his last.

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Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #5 is now available from DC Comics.